The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-09-27
The. Grand ARMY of the Republic.


The city has made preparations to welcome
is visitors in such manner that they can
not doubt its heartiness Mics of streets
are handsomely decorated and triumphal
arches have been erected across the road
ways along which the veterans will march.
J Everything will be done TO show honor TO
the defenders of the Union in a State of
which the preponderating sentiment during
the war was probably against the cause for
which they fought.
| The number of veterans present at the
/ Grand Encampment will, in all likelihood,
exceed that on any former occasion. and
! for certain reasons the meeting will be of
: greater importance than any of its prede
ceSsors.
The society Is nominally partisan but
! of late months there have been manifesto
! tions of hostility to the present administra-
ton on the part Of both officers and men
that lead to the belief that if it ever had
that character it has lost it. The Presi-
| dents order in relation to the captured Con-
federate battle-hags was made the occasion
of the coarsest abuse of him by men who
stand high in the councils of the So
ciety. 1t was with something
like amazement that Southern people
heard this outbreak. They were perfectly
Indifferent whether the government kept
the flags, destroyed them or returned them,
| and they could not understand why so much
value was attached to them They now
begin to see that the incident was seized
upon to vent the anger aroused by other
actions of the President, and TO make polit-
zeal capital for the Republican party.
The President showed by his numerous
vetoes of unworthy private pension bills,
and of the dependent pension bill, that in
his opinion the government had gone as far
as it should in extending aid to those who
had served in its armies. That aid was al
ready on a scale never before APP
preached in magnitude by any
nation, the pensioners numbering in
the neighborhood of 100000, and the money
appropriated for their benefit amounting to
about S75, 100000 year. But this enor-
nous sum, almost as much as the great ar
my of Germany costs, does not satisfy the
appetite of the old soldiers, which grows
sharper in proportion as it is fed, and there
seems to be a disposition among them to
make their organization the means of fright
ening the politicians into granting any de-
mands, however extravagant. The policy
to which the administration is committed
has made them its enemies
A great majority of the army posts
which have taken action on the
question have demanded the passage
of the dependent pension bill, and a
resolution to that effect will doubtless be
put before the convention in st. Louis. 1t
may be that even larger demands will be
made. A convention of ex-prisoners was
held in Chicago last week, and a bill was
prepared for introduction in Congress pro-
viding that all those confined in Confeder-
ate prisons ninety days shall receive a
quarter of the full pension, 100 days one
half, 270 days three-quarters, and beyond
that full pension. The bill also allows
each prisoner 81 for every day he was in
captivity. Drafts of the bill were sent to
every Grand Army post in the country, and
committee appointed to submit the meas
ure to the Grand Encampment for its in
dorsement. A resolution demands the pas
sage of this bill by Congress in the name
of loyalty and patriotism"
The manner in which the society deals
with this and kindred propositions at st.
Louis will fix its character and purposes in
the minds of the people. If it determine to
become closely organized machine to ex-
tort pensions, as certain things have indi-
Gated, it will be source of real danger. 1t
will find ready allies in those interested in
keeping up or increasing the pres
ent rate of taxation, who will,
under the pretense of gratitude
to old soldiers, serve their own private in
terests. The surplus will be speedily got
ten rid Of and hole cut in the bottom of
the Treasury's strong box so large that the
most industrious efforts of the customs col
lectors cannot keep it full
The South has peculiar interest in this
question. She is poor, while the other sec
tions of the country arc rich Yet she pays
a very large proportion of the taxes. OF
the immense amount paid out in pensions,
practically none comes back to her. This
is one of the penalties of defeat, and there
has been no complaint heretofore that the
burden it imposed was heavy, but it can
easily be made SO heavy that it win be
crushing.
1t is to be hoped that the result of the
meeting at st. Louis will be to put the
Grand Army back in the position it ought
to occupy-a society for the preservation of
the patriotic memories of the war and the
stimulation of patriotic sentiments among
the young,